WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats beat a hasty retreat Wednesday from their rejection of Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama’s successor, yielding to pressure from Obama himself and from senators irked that the standoff was draining attention and putting them in a bad light. Burris said with a smile that he expected to join them “very shortly.”

Though there was no agreement yet to swear Burris in, he posed for photos at the Capitol with Senate leaders, then joined them for a meeting followed by supportive words that bordered on gushing. The events came one day after Burris had left the Capitol in pouring rain in a scripted rejection.

Obama had spoken to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday on the need to find a quick solution to defuse the dispute, according to Democratic officials. Reid was told by Obama that if Burris had the legal standing to be seated — despite controversy surrounding his appointment by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — it should be done “sooner rather than later,” said an Obama transition aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because the conversation was private.

The dispute had taken on racial overtones after comments by some Burris supporters. The former Illinois attorney general would be the Senate’s only black member following Obama’s departure.

“My whole interest in this experience is to be prepared” to lead Illinois, Burris, 71, said after meeting with Reid and assistant Democratic leader Dick Durban, himself an Illinois senator. “Very shortly I will have the opportunity to do that.”

The get-to-know-you meeting with Reid on Wednesday was the first of several steps toward seating Burris, Democrats said. Second, the Illinois Supreme Court would have to force Secretary of State Jesse White to sign Burris’ certification to comply with Senate rules. Third, Burris would have to give a sworn statement to the state’s impeachment inquiry that he didn’t offer anything to Blagojevich in exchange for the seat. He promised Reid and Durbin he would do so.

Finally, the Senate would almost certainly vote on whether to seat Burris, Reid said.

The process still could take several weeks, Senate officials predicted.

Not everyone was encouraged by the situation.

White, the Illinois secretary of state, compared Reid’s actions to “strapping me in a wheelchair and pushing (me) down four flights of stairs.”

As news of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, unfolded last week, Pia Guerra, a 46-year-old Vancouver-based artist, felt helpless. She couldn’t bring herself to go to sleep, so she began to draw.

Police who find suspected drugs during a traffic stop or an arrest usually pause to perform a simple task: They place some of the material in a vial filled with liquid. If the liquid turns a certain color, it’s supposed to confirm the presence of cocaine, heroin or other narcotics.